Confident Democrats Lay Out Agenda  —  Party Plans Probes Of Administration If It Wins the House  —  Democratic leaders, increasingly confident they will seize control of the House in November, are laying plans for a legislative blitz during their first week in power that would raise the minimum wage …

In a Dentist Shortage, British (Ouch) Do It Themselves  —  George Glasper, 81, at the Dental Access Center in Rochdale.  It gives emergency care but is always swamped.  —  ROCHDALE, England, May 2 — "I snapped it out myself," said William Kelly, 43, describing his most recent dental procedure …

Israel foils plot to kill Palestinian president  —  A HAMAS plot to assassinate Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has been thwarted after he was tipped off by Israeli intelligence.  —  Hamas's military wing, the Izza Din Al-Qassem, had planned to kill Abbas at his office in Gaza, intelligence sources said.

Part of me died when I saw this cruel killing  —  EVEN by the stupefying standards of Iraq's unspeakable violence, the murder of Atwar Bahjat, one of the country's top television journalists, was an act of exceptional cruelty.  —  Nobody but her killers knew just how much she had suffered until …

Poll: More Drivers Feel Pinch at the Pump  —  WASHINGTON - High pump prices are pinching the pocketbooks of seven in 10 Americans, a financial hardship that more middle- and higher-income drivers say they are beginning to feel, an AP-Ipsos poll found.  —  With gasoline prices topping $3 …

Hands Off  —  There is a strange post by Eugene Volokh about "involuntary sexual arousal and touching" here, at the Volokh Conspiracy.  It elicited a very strong negative reaction from Belle Waring, which is posted here, at Crooked Timber.  Volokh's theory seems to be that people …

Iraqis, British Troops Spar After Crash  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq — A British military helicopter apparently was hit by a missile Saturday and crashed in Basra, triggering a confrontation in which jubilant Iraqis pelted British troops with stones, hurled firebombs and shouted slogans in support of a radical Shiite Muslim cleric.

Pollster Suggests Bush Moves Might Be Too Little, Too Late  —  The recent White House shake-up was an attempt to jump-start the administration and boost President Bush's rock-bottom approval ratings, but have those efforts come too late to salvage the presidency?  A prominent GOP pollster thinks that may be the case.

Islamic scholars to issue pro-Hamas fatwa  —  DOHA (AFP) - Islamic scholars are to meet in Doha next week to draw up a fatwa, or religious edict, obliging the Muslim faithful to help the internationally isolated Palestinian government headed by Hamas.  —  Influential cleric Yussef al-Qardawi …

If Ray McGovern Speaks 'Truth to Power' Why the Lie About WMD?  —  While CNN was propping up Ray McGovern as the new "Cindy Sheehan with facial hair", Ray was spewing out anti-Semitic drivel over at MSNBC's The Situation with Tucker Carlson.  —  Ray McGovern delivers mock indictments through a fence to guards at the White House.

Libby Loses Bid for Documents in CIA Case  —  WASHINGTON - A federal judge refused on Friday to give I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby access to a wide range of information from several government agencies, saying he would not allow the former White House aide's trial in the CIA leak case to become a debate over the war in Iraq.

Late Nite FDL: "Personnel is Policy:" It's Time for Regime Change  —  It's time for regime change in Washington.  —  In 1961, Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower said: … Eisenhower's famous warning is as salient today as ever, but it is incomplete.  We live in a media age unlike any Eisenhower ever contemplated.

With Smear Scandal, France Near Paralysis  —  PARIS — When French criminal investigators finish their probe of the smear, who was smeared and who did the smearing may be little more than a footnote.  —  A burgeoning political scandal of alleged dirty tricks involving the cabinet's …

Targeted Killings Surge in Baghdad  —  Nearly 4,000 civilian deaths, many of them Sunni Arabs slain execution-style, were recorded in the first three months of the year.  —  BAGHDAD — More Iraqi civilians were killed in Baghdad during the first three months of this year than at any time since …

Chavez Wants Vote on Governing Until '31  —  CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez said Saturday that Venezuelan voters should have the chance to decide whether he should govern the country for the next 25 years.  —  Speaking at a stadium packed with supporters in central Lara state …

Blasts at 2 Chinese Internet Cafes Kill 2  —  BEIJING — Explosions rocked two Internet cafes in central China, killing two people, injuring four and leaving the premises spattered with blood and broken glass, a local official and state media said Saturday.  —  Authorities refused to say if bombs …

Contra-Contraception  —  The English writer Daniel Defoe is best remembered today for creating the ultimate escapist fantasy, "Robinson Crusoe," but in 1727 he sent the British public into a scandalous fit with the publication of a nonfiction work called "Conjugal Lewdness: or, Matrimonial Whoredom."

Kidnapped in Iraq: Victim's Tale of Clockwork Death and Ransom  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 4 — New victims arrived every day, blindfolded and terrified.  The kidnappers would shove them into the small, unfurnished room where Issam Mofak Jassem sat on the concrete floor awaiting his fate.